I dare you to find anyone who predicted eight weeks ago what’s become one of the more compelling storylines of the college golf season. After all, the man who’s been writing it wasn't even so bold.

OK, so Jay Seawell did have a feeling his Alabama men’s golf team was ready to make a statement this fall, what with most of his players stringing together solid performances on the amateur circuit this past summer, four successfully qualifying for last August’s U.S. Amateur Championship. It’s just that as the jovial 40-year-old coach (right, photos courtesy of the Alabama Sports Information Department) prepared his squad for the 2006-07 campaign, he wasn’t quite ready to say he had the best men’s golf team in the country.

Three wins and a fourth-place finish later, the Crimson Tide are just that, the nation’s top-ranked program in the newest Golf World College Coaches’ poll. Not bad for a school where football is king, and golf seemingly has been the court jester.

“It’s pretty satisfying,” Seawell says. “During the winter I’m sure we’ll look back and really digest what we’ve accomplished.”

Five of the six Alabama players who’ve teed it up this fall (the team has one remaining tournament, the Aloha Purdue Collegiate in Hawaii next month) are sporting stroke averages of 72.17 or better. Juniors Gator Todd (71.0), Michael Thompson (71.42), Joseph Sykora (70.17) and Mark Harrell (72.17) each have top-10 individual finishes that have helped the Crimson Tide claim the team titles at the Carpet Capital Classic by six strokes, the Shoal Creek Intercollegiate by six and the Jerry Pate National Collegiate by seven, the most consecutive tournaments won in school history and the most in a single season since 1972.

Mind you, to call Alabama an overnight success would be misleading. Since Seawell left Augusta State (after developing it into a nationally respected program) to come to Tuscaloosa in the fall 2002, he has spent numerous hours trying to change the mindset of a program that’s won just one SEC title in its 56-year history and made only nine NCAA Championship appearances.

The efforts have included beating the bushes for players who wanted to get in on the ground floor of something that could be potentially special, attracting kids who might otherwise have gone to other SEC programs. Simultaneously, he tapped Jerry Pate himself, the school’s most famous golf alum, to help build a $1.3 million state-of-the-art practice facility in November 2004 that could level the playing field with rival SEC school.

“It wasn’t that Alabama didn’t have the resources to become a top golf program,” notes a coach at another SEC school. “It’s just it didn’t have anyone to get everybody on the same page. That’s what Jay has done.”

The first true sign Seawell was on track came when he guided his squad to the 2005 NCAA Championship. Despite the team missing the 54-hole cut at Caves Valley GC, the school’s first trip to nationals in 10 years gave Todd, Sykora and Harrell, along with current senior Thomas Hagler a first-hand look at where the program wanted to be on a yearly basis.

After adding Alabama high school sensation Matthew Swan to the squad last fall, Seawell brought in  Thompson, a transfer from Tulane, this past summer to give him his most talented roster to date. “I think the depth of our team is the key,” Seawell says. “We don’t have a superstar. We don’t have a guy that’s going to carry the whole team week in and week out. We have six really, really good players.

For a better glimpse at just how deep the Crimson Tide really is, consider that Sykora couldn’t crack the starting line-up for Alabama’s first two tournaments this fall. Once he did, he proceeded to shoot rounds of 67-67-65 at Old Overton GC in Birmingham to claim medalist honors at the Jerry Pate and now has the team’s lowest scoring average. Meanwhile, junior Max Alverio has yet to make the travel squad this fall, even though he’s good enough to be representing Puerto Rico at this week’s World Amateur Team Championship in South Africa.

“What we’ve done is put them in an atmosphere to compete against each other,” Seawell contends. “We have a very balanced team all the way from one through 10. We just tried to put them in an environment to compete because when you compete it makes you better. And I think for the first time we have the depth where the competition has pushed them at home as much as it does on the road.”

While seemingly everyone has had a hand in the success, the most unlikely contributor has been Todd, a 20-year-old from Florence, Ala., who has had four top-15 finishes, including two top-fives despite being the one player who was struggling with his game entering the fall. So frustrated with his play as recently as six weeks ago, Todd (above) nearly decided to redshirt this season to work on his swing before a conversation with Seawell persuaded him otherwise.

“We talked the first week of September and I said ‘Gator, are you going to be willing to watch us drive off in the van each week and do some successful things [without you]?’ ” recalls Seawell. “About a day later he said ‘Coach, I couldn’t do that.’ And as soon as he made that decision, the light went on. He’s played great. He has played great at home and played great on the road.”

Suffice it to say Seawell has noticed a change in attitude among his players as the fall has played out. “The teams like Georgia and Oklahoma State and Florida and Clemsons and UCLAs of the world have created an atmosphere within college golf and within their own team, when they come to a tournament there is an expectation level within your own team,” Seawell says. “And when you’re not in that little circle, that’s the hardest thing to learn and to teach. And I think that’s the part I’m most proud of with these guys. For the first time they feel they belong in that circle.”

Commend Seawell all you want for the coaching job he’s done thus far. The truth is, though, that the hard part has just begun. They don’t hand out NCAA Championship titles in November. To his credit, Seawell appreciates what still lies ahead. “Our goals aren’t to be a great team in the fall,” he says. “It’s to be a great team.

“We’re going to work hard in the weight room a little bit and try to get a little stronger and we’ll come back in January and just go back to the same formula we had.”

And as for any prediction about the spring? Seawell says he’ll remain quiet again, content with the knowledge that Alabama now means something different out in college golf.

GOLF WORLD Players of the Week

Week of  Oct. 16-22
MEN
Zack Miller, Stanford
The senior from San Rafael, Calif., made six birdies over the final nine holes at the Norman Course at PGA West to claim medalist honors at The Prestige, his second win of the fall. Miller shot a final-round 69 for a nine-under 207 total to beat UC-Irvine’s Jay Choe and UCLA’s Lucas Lee by two strokes.

WOMEN
Kristen Svicarovich, Vanderbilt
The Commodores carded a school-record nine-under 275 in the final round of the Stanford Women’s Intercollegiate, thanks to the senior’s 67 at Stanford GC. The six-birdie performance (four on the back nine) was a career low and helped rally Vanderbilt from fourth place to the team title.

THE FAB FIVE
My look at the top five teams right now in the country

MEN
1. Alabama—Coach Jay Seawell and his Crimson Tide squad are about to learn that being the one chasing the top team in the country is the easy part. Being the one that’s getting chased is much tougher.

2. UCLA—The Bruins had three players post top-five finishes individually at Oregon’s Pacific Dunes while claiming the title at the Big Ten/Pac-10 Challenge. Worst stroke average among 10 players to have played at least six rounds? 74.83.

3. Oklahoma State—It’s asking a lot to expect the Cowboys to beat perhaps the strongest field of the season thus far at the Isleworth-UCF Invitational when their two best players (Pablo Martin and Jonathan Moore) are in South Africa playing for Spain and the U.S. at this week’s World Amateur Team Championship. Both will be missing from the Callaway Golf Collegiate Match Play, as well, making it easy to see how OSU might go winless this fall.

4. Florida—You get the feeling sophomore Billy Horschel could single-handedly keep the Gators in the top five of any event they tee it up at.   

5. Stanford—The Cardinal continues to show depth with two more players (Joseph Bramlett, Matt Savage) posting top-five finishes at the Big Ten/Pac-10 Challenge.

WOMEN
1. Georgia—Only thing that can sidetrack the Bulldogs, it seems, is the stomach flu. Sophomore Taylor Leon forced to WD in the final round at Stanford leaves Georgia shorthanded, yet Todd McCorkle’s bunch still flies back from California with a top-three finish.

2. Duke—Even the Blue Devils are going to struggle without their top two players (Amanda Blumenherst and Jennie Lee) in the line-up. Still, coach Dan Brooks needs a better finish than seventh at next week’s Hooters Collegiate Match Play to keep from making it a long winter in Durham, N.C.

3. Arizona State—While away at the women’s World Amateur Team Championship, Azahara Munoz of Spain shot a five-under 283, tying her for third individually. Anna Nordqvist of Sweden, meanwhile, shot a one-under 287, good for a T-14.

4. Vanderbilt—Win once (Lady Tar Heel Invitational) and there are those who can say you got lucky. Win a second time (last weekend’s Stanford Women’s Collegiate) and the only thing people are saying is “Watch out for the Commodores.” 

5. Auburn—Question for the Tigers entering 2006-07 was who would step up to replace Maria Martinez as the team’s anchor. Coach Kim Evans hopes to get an answer this weekend in her home event. 

STAT OF THE WEEK
20.74
Number of shots lower than the average for the 60-player field that USC freshman Jamie Lovemark shot at Pacific Dunes GC in Bandon, Ore., en route to claiming medalist honors at the Big Ten/Pac-10 Challenge. The 18-year-old from Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., shot rounds of 70-72-67 for a four-under 209 total, eight strokes better than runner-up Daniel Im of UCLA. Of the 12 rounds of even-par or lower posted throughout the 54-hole event, Lovemark had three as he claimed his first college title and helped the Trojans finish in second place as a team.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR
* Instead of playing for Texas A&M at this week’s Isleworth-UCF Invitational, Aggie sophomore Bronson Burgoon was teeing it up at the Tradition Course at Cypresswood GC in Spring, Texas, where he is competing in the first stage of PGA Tour Qualifying School. It’s a scenario college coaches feared when the USGA agreed a few years ago to allow amateurs to enter Q school without losing their amateur status. The “free pass” would persuade top players to give Q school a shot, likely causing them not only to miss college tournaments but more class time, potentially jeopardizing their academic eligibility should they not get a card and decide to return to school in the spring.

Thankfully for college golf, the flood gates haven’t opened. Still. Burgoon could become an interesting test case. Entering the third round of play this morning, he was at five-under 139, five shots out of the lead in a tie for seventh (top 26 and ties advance; for live updated scoring, click here). Should he advance, the potential for more players to follow his path increases, and don’t think for a second other collegians aren’t watching to see how he makes out.

To coach J.T. Higgins’ credit, he’s taking the high road on the matter. “Bronson is an outstanding player and obviously an important member of our team, but it is also his dream to play on the PGA Tour,” he said. “Playing in Q-school as an amateur gives him the opportunity to see how he stacks up against the pros without compromising his amateur status and his eligibility to play for Texas A&M. Like all our players, we want to do everything we can to help him reach his goals.”

Higgins went on to say that without Burgoon in the line-up, it would allow him to see just how deep his Aggie team—ranked eighth in this week’s new Golf World College Coaches poll—might be. With a third-place finish at Isleworth, 14 shots back of winner Texas, he likely has his answer. Sure, coach will gladly welcome back Burgoon to the line-up Sunday when the Aggies close out the fall at the Callaway Golf Collegiate Match Play Championship in Fort Worth. But if his top player were to successfully navigate through first and second stage and decide to turn pro, Higgins has a team that can survive.

* If you’re looking for a sleeper men’s team to watch for in the spring, keep your eye on New Mexico. That is, however, if Lobo senior Charlie Beljan’s back can hold up. The 22-year-old from Mesa, Ariz., has had to miss two of UNM’s four fall tournaments because of spasms that have flared up now for a few years (you might recall he was forced to skip the NCAA Championship because of them in 2005). In his two fall starts, however, the former U.S. Junior Amateur champion has shown his All-American talent, winning medalist honors by one shot at both last month’s Tucker Invitational and this week’s Club Glove Intercollegiate after making birdie on the final hole in each event.

Beljan deserves a little extra credit for perseverance in his latest effort. Hitting his tee ball on the eighth hole at Saticoy CC in Somis, Calif., in the final round, Beljan collapsed in pain. “I thought that was the last swing of the day for him,” Lobo coach Glen Millican told Campus Insider, the spasms returning. Still, he scraped his way around with a one-under 71 to claim his second title.

Millican says the problem is muscular, with the pain centering around Beljan’s tailbone. “It’s not like a bulging disc where you could have surgery or something to treat it,” said Millican. “We’ve just got to monitor things closely, and he’s learning how to cope with it.”

Suffice it to say, as Beljan goes, so goes the Lobos, who won the Tucker and finished T-2 at the Club Glove with their top player in the line-up. In their other two starts with Beljan at home, though, UNM finished 15th and 10th. “More than just his score, he brings a great deal of leadership with him,” Millican said.

TOURAMENT TO WATCH
The Auburn-Derby Invitational
Oct. 27-29
Auburn University Club (for live stats, click here)
Field: Alabama, Auburn, Baylor, Birmingham Southern, Central Florida, Florida, Florida State, Furman, Kansas, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas. 
Defending champion: Auburn (15-over 879); Maria Martinez, Auburn (seven-under 209)
Skinny: It’s an interesting twist of fate that the week in which a tournament name after her is being played, former Auburn coach and 2006 U.S. Curtis Cup team member Virginia Derby Grimes is making headlines of her own. The 43-year-old advanced to the semifinals at this week’s U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, a tournament she won back in 1998 and finished runner-up in 2004. It was back in 1998 that the event was renamed to honor Derby Grimes, who got it started when she was the Tigers coach in 1994. Interestingly, the host school has allowed the title to be passed around a fair amount among its guests; Auburn has won the event three times in 10 starts. Also interesting, no school from outside the Southeastern Conference has ever won the event.

What’s the old saying, those who can’t do, teach? Well the person who professed that claim never saw how today’s college golf coaches can get things done themselves on the golf course.

Yesterday, Mississippi women’s coach Meghan Bolger (left in photo, courtesy of Ole Miss Sports Information Department) and Augusta State women’s coach Laura Coble  advanced to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship at Old Waverly GC in West Point, Miss., becoming the most recent coaches to show they can keep up with their charges. No doubt Oklahoma State women’s coach Laura Mathews would have been in contention as well, had it not been for the fact that she was playing for the Canadian squad at last week’s World Amateur Team Championship in South Africa, where she finished 12th individually.

(EDITOR'S NOTE—Oct. 26, 11:05 p.m.: On Thursday, Oct. 26, Bolger defeated Thuhashini Selvaratna, 5 and 4, in the final to claim the U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur title)

The same type of performances happened last month at the men’s Mid-Amateur in Flagstaff, Ariz., where Georgia assistant coach Ryan Hybl lost in the final, Oklahoma State assistant Alan Bratton and St. Mary’s (Calif.) College men’s coach Scott Hardy all made it to the final eight.

“I think getting a chance to play with the team on a regular basis obviously helps keep my game sharp,” professed Bratton, who returned to competition this past summer after getting his amateur status reinstated and won the Oklahoma Amateur. “Plus it can’t help but give you a little confidence when you see yourself hanging in there with some of the best young talent in the game.”

Of course, seeing college coaches perform well when they step to the tee isn’t necessarily a new phenomenon. Perhaps the most famous coach/player if Fred Funk, who was running the men’s program at Maryland in the 1980s only to realize that he was better than any of the players he had, a revelation that caused him to give competitive golf another try. So how did that work out, Mr. 2005 Players Championship winner?

Another famous coach/player is Florida men’s coach Buddy Alexander, who won the U.S. Amateur title in 1986 while coaching LSU.

Recent examples of coaches who’ve show their stuff: Stanford men’s coach Conrad Ray, who qualified for the 2005 U.S. Open, and Illinois men’s coach Mike Small, who won the 2005 PGA of American Club Professional Championship. That victory not only got him into the 2005 PGA Championship but helped him earn spots into nine PGA Tour events this year, where he made the cut four times with a T-38 at the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee being his best finish. Had Small, in his seventh season with the Fighting Illini, played enough rounds to qualify for the various PGA Tour statistics, he would rank 22nd in driving distance, averaging 299 yards off the team.

While tending to her game this week at Old Waverly, Bolger also kept an eye on her squad this week, visiting them at practice Monday after winning her opening-round match. By the end of the day today she had advance to the Women's Mid-Am finals. Suffice it to say coaches these days can apparently teach and do at the same time.

GOLF WORLD Players of the Week

Week of Oct. 9-15
MEN
Colt Knost, SMU
For the third time in four starts this season, the senior from Pilot Point, Texas, claimed medalist honors, winning the Windon Memorial with a two-under 211 showing, five shots better than Kansas’ Gary Woodland. This time Knost’s performance also helped the Mustangs secure the team title, beating the Jayhawks by a comfortable 14 shots at Skokie CC in Glencoe, Ill.

WOMEN
Angela Oh, Tennessee
The freshman from Maple Grove, N.J., made 10 birdies over 54 holes at Cherokee CC in Knoxville, Tenn., en route to a career-best T-5 finish, but her birdie in a team playoff between the Lady Vols and Georgia helped UT claim the title at the Mercedes-Benz Women’s Collegiate Championship.

THE FAB FIVE
My look at the top five teams right now in the country

MEN
1. Alabama —The win streak ends at three after the fourth-place showing at the Bank of Tennessee but the Crimson Tide’s confidence continues to grow.

2. Oklahoma State—The Cowboys face a stand-out field this weekend at the Isleworth/UCF Invitational, the perfect setting to show the defending NCAA champs aren’t going anywhere.

3. UCLA —Could sophomore Lucas Lee (two second-place finishes in two starts this fall) be the go-to guy Coach O.D.Vincent has been looking for?

4. Florida—Isleworth will show whether the young Gator squad has been reading all the press generated from their win at the Ping Preview or been continuing to work on their games in Gainesville. 

5. Stanford —Win at the Gopher Invitational was nice start, but this week’s victory over UCLA at The Prestige suggests the Cardinal is for real (see below).

WOMEN
1. Georgia—The Bulldogs couldn’t pull it out in the playoff with Tennessee at the Mercedes-Benz Women’s Collegiate Championship, but another solid showing leaps them over Duke.

2. Duke—The Blue Devils will have to play without Amanda Blumenherst and Jennie Lee, both in South Africa representing the U.S. at the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship, this week at the Stanford Invitational. The flip side is freshmen Rebecca Kim and Yu Young Lee will get the chance to make their college debuts.

3. Arizona State—The Sun Devils will sit out the Stanford event with Anna Nordqvist and Azahara Munoz also in South Africa at the WATC. Meanwhile, sophomore Jennifer Osborn (three top-10s this fall) continues to prove she’s among the toughest players in the college game.

4. UCLA—The top of the line-up is solid for the Bruins with Tiffany Joh, Sydnee Michaels and Hannah Jun. Difference in being able to have a good or great season will be in the production from the No. 4 and 5 spot.

5. Auburn —The Tigers had the lead entering the final round of the Mercedes-Benz last Sunday only to fall two shots shy of the Tennessee-Georgia playoff. Haven’t finished worse than third in their first three starts.

STAT OF THE WEEK
2
The number of men’s or women’s Division I teams that have played two or more events this fall and have yet to lose a golf tournament. The Denver women made it four out of four with a victory at the Taylor Made Aztec Fall Classic Tuesday. The other undefeated? The Princeton women. The Tigers claimed their own Princeton Invitational last month to start the 2006-07 season and followed it with a victory at the Yale Fall Intercollegiate. In both events, junior Annika Welander earned medalist honors as well, posting a 73.0 stroke average. With the ECAC Women’s Championship rained out two weeks ago, the Tigers and Welander (picture courtsey of the Princeton Athletic Communications) now go for win No. 3 later this month at the Ross Resorts Invitational in Southern Pines, N.C.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR
* It wasn’t an easy decision Stanford men’s coach Conrad Ray made two summers ago to hang up his clubs and end his professional playing career to take the job at his alma mater. However, it might have been one of the best decisions the Cardinal athletic department has made in some time. After nearly a decade of down times following the Tiger Woods/Notah Begay/Casey Martin years (when Ray was also a member of the golf team), Stanford has crept back to national prominence with two wins and a runner-up finish this fall, thanks in no small part to the leadership of the 31-year-old Ray. Interestingly, the Cardinal’s recent success has come despite their mainstay the past two season, Pac-10 co-player of the year Rob Grube, having a so-so start. Picking up the slack has been senior Zack Miller, who claimed his second individual victory on Tuesday with a three-shot win at The Prestige. Meanwhile, Ray’s recruiting of freshmen Jordan Cox and Joseph Bramlett has proved that he can keep highly talented Californians back home. Don’t be surprised to see one or both win a tournament this season, and the Cardinal be in the hunt for at least a Pac-10 title next spring.

* The bad news: a broken hand will keep Wake Forest junior Webb Simpson from playing for the U.S. at the men’s World Amateur Team Championship next week in South Africa (he's being replaced by Georgia senior Chris Kirk). The good news: the Demon Deacons close out the fall season at Isleworth next week, meaning that Simpson won’t miss any additionally college events because of the injury and have all winter for rehab. The injury, suffered back in North Carolina, was to a bone that Simpson had previously broken in high school and isn't considered too serious.

"It's a shame for Webb to have to miss out on this," Kirk told Campus Insider Thursday morning regarding the WATC. "He's a good friend of mine and I talked to him yesterday. It was a big shock to me [to hear about the injury], but I'm excited. I feel like my game is in good shape to help [the U.S.] team." Kirk, meanwhile, will miss the Isleworth tournament for the Bulldogs and the Callaway Collegiate Match Play Championship the following week in Fort Worth.

TOURAMENT TO WATCH
Isleworth-UCF Collegiate Invitational
Oct. 22-24
Isleworth CC, Windermere, Fla. (For live results, click here)
Field: Arizona, Central Florida, Clemson, Duke, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia State, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma State, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Wake Forest.
Defending champion: Georgia (eight-over 872); Pablo Martin, Oklahoma State (four-under 212)
Skinny: In just three years, this tournament has become one of the most prestigious on the fall docket. Martin, trying to win the title for a third straight year, can remember fondly his close in the final round at Isleworth a year ago when hit arguably the best shot of the 2005-06 college season. On the par-5 17th, he reached the green in two with a 4-iron from 224 yards, the ball rolling within an inch of the hole. The tap-in eagle allowed Martin to hold holding off his ’04 co-medalist, Chris Kirk of Georgia, by two shots.

As you check out the results of various women’s college tournaments in the next few days, don’t be surprised if some of the top squads have an off week. That’s because many of the game’s best players are actually in South Africa competing in the biennial Women's World Amateur Team Championship.

Indeed, six of the top 10 finishers at last spring’s NCAA Championship teed it up this morning in the opening round of the WATC at De Zalze GC in Stellenbosch, South Africa, with a total of 18 U.S. collegians overall playing in the tournament. (For live scoring, click here.)

The format of the WATC isn’t far off from a typical college event. Each country in the field—42 total—has three women on its team with the two low scores each day counting toward the team total as the countries vie for the Espirito Santo Trophy. Sweden is the defending champion, beating the U.S. and Canada by three shots in 2004.

The WATC is a great tournament, one that doesn’t get a lot of publicity in the U.S. but truly does help promote golf globally. It’s not a stretch to call this event golf’s version of the Olympics. I got a chance to cover the WATC in Puerto Rico two years ago and learn a lot about the history of the tournament and what makes it special to so many. After the women's portion concludes Saturday, the men compete Oct. 26-29 at Stellenbosch GC.

Here is a listing of all the women's college players that are in the field (as well as the one college coach in the field, Oklahoma State's Laura Matthews). The schools that take the biggest hits are Duke, USC, Pepperdine and Arizona State, with two current players away from each squad to play in the WATC. Not surprisingly, only one of the four (Duke) is playing at the Stanford Intercollegiate this weekend, the other three waiting until next week’s UNLV event to resume their fall schedules.

Manuela Tarazona, Argentina (Jacksonville State)
Laura Matthews, Canada (Oklahoma State)
Kira Meixner, Canada (Kent State)
Alejandra Shaw, Chile (Campbell)
Eileen Vargas, Colombia (Pepperdine)
Sandra Gal, Germany (Florida)
Erina Hara, Japan (Tohuku Fukushi University)
Liliana Alvarez, Mexico (Northwestern)
Christel Boeljon, Netherlands (Purdue)
Dewi-Claire Schreefel, Netherlands (USC)
Natasha Krishna, New Zealand (Nevada)
Lene Krog, Norway (East Carolina)
Belen Mozo, Spain (USC)*
Azahara Munoz, Spain (Arizona State)
Anna Nordquist, Sweden (Arizona State)
Caroline Westrup, Sweden (Florida State)
Kwan-Chi Lu, Taipei (Taipei Physical Education College)
Veronica Felibert, Venezuela (USC)
Stephanie Gelleni, Venezuela (Pepperdine)
Amanda Blumenherst, USA (Duke)
Jennie Lee, USA (Duke)
* scheduled to enter school in January

One last note … for an interesting perspective on the WATC (and a harrowing experience in the days before the event), check out the blog Duke sophomores Amanda Blumenherst and Jennie Lee are writing from the tournament. The two are joined by U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Kimberly Kim on the U.S. squad, hoping to claim the title to go with the Curtis Cup they won this past summer.

While accustom to seeing schools field solid men’s and women’s programs—Duke, UCLA, Arizona State to name but a few—I can’t recall of late one university having its two squads perform as well on the same day as Tennessee did Sunday. 

Hosting the 10th annual Mercedes-Benz Women’s Collegiate Championship, the Lady Vols closed with a final-round low 291 to finish tied with Georgia after 54 holes at Cherokee CC in Knoxville, before beating the Bulldogs in a one-hole playoff. At nearly the exact same time roughly 80 miles away in Jonesborough, Tenn., the Volunteer men shot a final-round three-under 285 at The Ridges G&CC to sneak past in-state rival East Tennessee State and claim the Bank of Tennessee at the Ridges title by one shot. (For men’s final results click here, women’s click here.)

Both Tennessee programs have been ranked in the Golf World top 25 the past few years, but the victories (the first of the fall for each) are significant in that they each help lift the two Knoxville teams from merely good “on paper” to good “on the course” for the 2006-07 season.

“We knew we were within range, and with the greens the way they are, we knew we had a chance if we played well,” noted women’s coach Judi Pavon. “I'm really, really proud of our team for hanging in there and believing in themselves and then going out in that playoff.”

Pavon’s squad entered the fall trying to replace the face of the Lady Vols for the past four years: former SEC player of the year Violeta Retamoza. Suffice it to say, the coach saw again that members of her returning squad was ready to step up and perform. Last month it was sophomore Nicole Smith who came from under the radar to win the Golf Daytona Beach Fall Preview. This past weekend it was Angela Oh, a freshman from Maple Shade, N.J., who made a clutch birdie in the playoff to give Tennessee the win after finishing T-5 individually, her best showing in four starts. With a little more consistency from All-American candidate Marci Turner, the Lady Vols are a legitimate top-10 team.

Men’s coach Jim Kelson, too, got to see a trio of his players emerge as possible leaders for the spring with top-10 performances from junior Philip Pettitt (second place, three shots back of ETSU’s Rhys Davies), junior Charles Ford (T-3) and senior Tino Weiss (T-9). For Pettitt and Ford, it was their second top-10s of the season.

“I am extremely proud of how the team played and competed,” Kelson said. “It is a huge win for our program. We can really build on this. This one meant a great deal.”

You can make the argument the SEC is the toughest conference of any in either men’s or women’s golf. Needless it to say, the play of the two Tennessee teams only bolsters such thinking. Meanwhile, judging from Sunday’s performance, you’re going to be hearing a lot of “Rocky Top” before the year is through.

If the editors at Random House or Simon and Schuster need someone to write a book about the dos and don’ts of settling into a new college, we’ve got the perfect candidate for them. When Alison Walshe, one of the nation’s top golfers, arrived in late August at the University of Arizona it marked the fourth campus she has taken classes at in four years.

“Yeah, I’m getting pretty used to figuring out where things are,” joked the 21-year-old from Westford, Mass., whose odyssey began at Boston College, headed south to Tulane and detoured sadly and unexpectedly to SMU when Hurricane Katrina forced Tulane students to find a new place to study last fall before sending her further west to what she hopes is her final stop.

The thing of it is, no matter what school Walshe plays for, she seems to thrive on the golf course. Making her Wildcat debut last month at the Mason Rudolph Championship outside Nashville, she claimed medalist honors with a six-under 210, closing with a final-round 67. Having won three times at BC (while earning Big East player of the year honors as a freshman) and once at Tulane (while earning Conference USA player of the year honors as a sophomore), she is believed to be the first collegiate golfer to win tournaments at three different schools.

While the decision to move from Chestnut Hill, Mass., to New Orleans in the summer of 2004 was of Walshe’s own choosing—she was searching for a warmer place where she could work more on her game during the winter months—leaving Tulane was among the most disappointing events of her life. The Green Waves were ranked in the top 25, having qualified for the NCAA Championship for the first time in school history the previous spring before school officials decided last December to cut the men’s and women’s golf team to lessen the financial burden the storm had created for the school.

Walshe (photo courtesy of the Arizona Sports Information Department) was already back in Massachusetts for winter break when the news broke. “We were just such a close knit team and we had some really high hopes for what we could accomplish,” said Walshe, who wears a necklace with New Orleans signature “fleur de lea” emblem as a memory of the area. “It was a helpless feeling to have that taken away.”

So it was that she found herself searching for yet another school, this time while simultaneously spending the spring semester at Tulane after students were allowed back on campus and while also trying to keep her game sharp despite having no collegiate events to play in. (Her only competitive golf prior to the summer’s amateur circuit was a Futures Tour tournament in Louisiana she played in thanks to a sponsor’s exemption.)

It was last January that Walshe took an official visit to Tucson along with fellow Tulane teammate Mary Ellen Jacobs. Both ultimately decided this was the right place for them after narrowing down their list of schools to U of A and Arizona State. Walshe is quick to note that having Jacobs, a 22-year-old junior from Godfrey, Ill., with her at Arizona has made the transition less painful.

“It is definitely easier going through it with Mary Ellen, because you obviously have someone to attach to if you don’t have anyone in the beginning,” Walshe said. “It’s not like going in as freshman and you need to find people to be around. But it’s a lot of weight off your shoulders having Mary here.”

No doubt Arizona women’s coach Greg Allen has been the biggest beneficiary of Tulane’s sad fate, landing two golfers with solid games and NCAA Championship experience. “They’re both just such great players but more importantly they’re both really good people,” Allen said. “There was never a fear that they might not fit in or might disrupt anything. They were only going to be positives for this group.”

While neither Walshe or Jacobs had hit a shot for the Wildcats, they both instantly became the oldest players on the team upon arriving this fall. It was a point Allen was fully aware of when he was recruiting the duo.

“I felt like Alison and Mary would definitely be difference makers for our program,” he said. “They both wanted to go somewhere they could play right away, and we just tried to sell them on the fact if they came here, we’re a young team and they would be instant leaders. And they’ve done that right away. The work ethic from the weight room to the golf course to just being around them everyday, I think is just such a positive for our young team.”

To get to know his two new charges better, Allen invited them to shoot baskets before golf practice this fall, getting into some heated games of “Horse” in the process. The competitive instinct in the two golfers has definitely come out, notes Allen, who has tried to help bring their natural athleticism to the course.

Suffice it to say, things have started well. Arizona finished 17th at the NCAA Championship a year ago, but grabbed a fourth-place finish at the Mason Rudolph, helping them jump to ninth in the latest Golf World preseason coaches poll.

Despite Walshe managing only T-28 finish earlier this week at the Edean Ihlandfeldt Invitational—Jacobs put up the Arizona’s best performance with a 19th-place showing as the team finished in sixth place—she clearly has the talent to grab first-team All-American honors. It’s high on her list of goals as she finally gets a little stability back into her life.

“Yeah, I’m ready to settle down,” said Walshe, having fun at her own campus crusade. “Hopefully this is my last stop.”

Still, you get a sense that for Walshe, the ride really has just begun.

GOLF WORLD Players of the Week

Week of Oct. 2-8
MEN
Billy Horschel, Florida
A final-round 63 at Golden Horseshoe’s Gold Course in Williamsburg, Va., earned the sophomore medalist honors at the Ping/Golfweek Preview, while propelling the Gators past Oklahoma State to the team title. Horschel’s seven-under 203 total was two better than Georgia’s Brian Harman.

WOMEN
Ashley Knoll, Texas A&M
The senior tied the Aggie school record for career wins (four) after shooting a two-under 214 to earn a share of the individual title at the Lady Tar Heel Invitational with Florida State’s Caroline Westrup. She also became the first A&M player to win the same tournament in back-to-back years.

THE FAB FIVE
My look at the top-five teams in the country

MEN
1. Alabama—Victory at the Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate earlier this week was the third win in three starts for coach Jay Seawell’s Crimson Tide, a team that has also benefited from a Tulane transfers (Michael Thompson)

2. Oklahoma State —The defending NCAA champs played well in final round of the Ping/Golfweek Preview, with Jonathan Moore posting his first sub-70 round of the year. Meanwhile, last year’s national player of the year, Pablo Martin, looks to be in solid form with two top-10 finishes

3. UCLA—Arguably the deepest team in the country. Coach O.D. Vincent will play two separate squads in different events this fall to get everybody the most competition heading into spring.

4. Florida —Coach Buddy Alexander feared his team might suffer from diaper rash with so many freshmen playing this season, but a victory at the Ping/Golfweek Preview has the Gators’ fortunes looking bright.

5. Clemson—Tigers’ young squad is still meshing, but second-place showing at Carpet Capital Classic shows its potental.

WOMEN
1. Duke—Yes, they haven’t had the dominant fall we’ve come to expect from the Blue Devils, but if not for a scorecard snafu at the Lady Tar Heel, they’d likely have two wins in their first three starts.

2. Georgia —The Bulldogs have a deeper roster than any year since winning the 2001 NCAA title. More importantly, they’re no longer afraid of Duke.

3. Arizona State —The Sun Devils were missing two players because of the World Team Amateur competition in South Africa, yet still managed a third-place finish at the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational.

4. UCLA —The Bruins have played solidly after the loss of Jane Park and Amie Cochran, posting a pair of third-place finishes at the Mason Rudolph and NCAA Preview.

5. Auburn —An eighth-place finish at the Lady Tar Heel wasn’t pretty, but talent is still on Tigers’ side.

STAT OF THE WEEK
60
Final-round score at the Ping/Golfweek Preview from BYU junior Daniel Summerhays, tying the NCAA record for lowest 18-hole performance. Summerhays joins Arizona State’s Paul Casey, Georgia Tech’s Bryce Molder and Washington’s Brock Mackenzie in posting the 60, and just missed putting up a 59 as his 25-foot birdie putt on his final hole at Golden Horseshoe GC’s Gold Course (site of the next year’s NCAA Championship) missed. Amazingly, Summerhays’ 10-under round included not only a streak of seven consecutive birdies but also two bogeys.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR
* After leading the University of Oregon to victory at the Northwest Collegiate Classic in just his second event as Ducks new men’s coach, Casey Martin saw his team finish seventh at the Alister Mackenzie Invitational. There will be growing pains for Martin as he tries to bring his squad into national prominence, but he already has begun to bring a new attitude to Eugene, Ore. It’s asking a lot for the Ducks to contend with the upper echelon of the Pac-10 in 2006-07, but don’t be surprised if Martin turns things around sooner than later.

* Can anybody stop either the Louisville men or the Denver women? The Cardinals won their first three events of the 2006-07 and tied for first this week at the Wolf Run Intercollegiate before bowing out in a playoff to Kentucky. The Pioneers, meanwhile, have a perfect three wins in three starts as they head to next week’s Lady Aztec Invitational. It’s the first time in school history that the squad has earned three straight victories. Leading the way for Louisville has been junior Derek Fathauer, who has two wins and four top-five finishes so far this fall. For Denver, it’s freshman Stephanie Sherlock, who won in her college debut and has a third- and fifth-place finish in her other two starts.

TOURAMENT TO WATCH
Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship
Oct. 13-15  (For live scoring, click here)
Cherokee CC, Knoxville, Tenn.
Field: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Furman, Georgia, Kent State, Michigan, Michigan State, North Carolina, Northwestern, Penn State, SMU, Tennessee
Defending champion: Georgia (30-over 882); Amanda McCurdy, Arkansas (even-par 213)
Skinny: The 10th annual event includes the Legends of Women’s Golf Banquet, which honors individuals who have made significant contributions to women’s golf in the U.S. This year’s professional honor will be given to Carol Mann, who is ninth in all-time victories on the LPGA Tour and helped shape the modern tour as it’s president in the mid-1970s. The amateur honor goes to Dr. Mary Budke, an eight time Oregon Women’s Amateur champion and the victorious captain of the 2002 U.S. Curtis Cup squad.

When I opened my e-mail inbox yesterday morning there was an e-mail from Brad Sutton, the sports information director for the men’s golf team at SMU. I get dozens of e-mails daily from college SIDs keeping me up to speed with the latest news on their respective teams, but I’ve been on the lookout for Sutton’s e-mails in particular this fall thanks to something I did just prior to the start of the 2006-07 college season.

Actually, to be more accurate, it was something I didn’t do—include SMU senior Colt Knost among Golf World’s 50 men’s players to watch for the coming season.

Knost’s omission wasn’t intended as a slight; I was well aware that the 21-year-old from Pilot Point, Texas (picture courtesy of the SMU Sports Information Department) had won three individual college titles in his career and had a solid summer this past year on the amateur circuit. It’s just that when you have to narrow a list down to 50, inevitably there is a No. 51 that misses the page. Needless to say, it’s not any more fun for me to keep a name off the list as it is for a player not to see his or her name on it.

Not surprisingly, in the days after we published the list in our Sept. 1 college preview issue, I began getting calls and e-mails about players I had overlooked. Among the most polite and well-written messages was one from SMU men’s coach Jay Loar inquiring as to why Knost wasn’t on the list. Naturally, Loar was standing up for his man, as any good coach would. I responded by explaining my predicament of shoehorning so many talented player into our space, noting that “I hoped he might prove me wrong in the coming weeks.”

Back then to Sutton’s e-mail from Tuesday. The subject line read: “Mustangs, Knost win Windon Classic.” It marked the first time in four starts this season that SMU had claimed a team title. Meanwhile, it was the third time in four starts Knost had walked away with at least a share of the individual title.

How do you like your crow, Mr. Herrington? Blackened or fried?

Knost’s 72.08 stroke average isn’t outrageously low, but in winning the Rich Harvest Farms Intercollegiate (with Louisville’s Derek Fathaur) by three shots, the Gopher Invitational (with Stanford’s Zack Miller) by one shot and now the Windon by five shots, he has managed to defeat 188 players. (His lone non-victory was a T-10 finish at the Shoal Creek Intercollegiate.)

“He’s probably the smartest player I’ve ever coached as far as figuring out what each course will give a player,” said Loar when reached on his cell phone yesterday. “He doesn’t force anything and just manages his game so well. He prepares so well and just being able to pick apart a course is his specialty.”

Knost's six career wins is believed to be SMU's all-time best, most certainly the most of any player in the last 10 years.

Loar believes Knost just narrowly missed earning honorable mention All-American honors the past two years and says that coming into this season his top player made it a point that he wasn’t going to leave any doubt about his being worthy this season.

Said Loar: “I think he was absolutely determined to leave no question open about his game.”

Well, he has made a believer out of one scribe, that’s for sure. Unfortunately I don’t have a mulligan for the players to watch list at this point. Yet Knost is well on his way to earning a spot on my All-American squad.

A word of advice to the rest of the women’s teams around the country whose eyes are getting a tad bit larger after seeing top-ranked Duke finish third at this weekend’s Lady Tar Heel Invitational: Get your licks in while you can. If not for a scorecard snafu on Saturday at the UNC Finlay GC—freshman Alison Whitaker signed for a 77 when she shot a 78, forcing the Blue Devils to count junior Jennifer Pandolfi’s career-high 86—the Blue Devils may well have made it 10 straight victories at the Chapel Hill, N.C.

Still, the fact that two different teams now have knocked off the Blue Devils in their first three events in 2006-07—Vanderbilt grabbing its first win since 2004 at the Tar Heel and Georgia claiming a nine-shot victory at the Golf Daytona Beach Fall Preview—suggests a third straight national championship for the Duke is far from a foregone conclusion. Recall that for the last three seasons, Dan Brooks’ squads have won its first three, four and seven tournaments, respectively. While winning the Mason Rudolph last month, the fact Duke hasn’t come out top of the other two events was enough for Brooks even to comment about the slower start.

“Obviously we are not playing the kind of golf that we will eventually be playing,” Brooks said Sunday. “The approach we take to training, the way we focus ourselves, the intensity we got at it and the way we play on the golf course is good, effective. The nature of any sport is you cannot play the best all the time.”

The thing of it is, it’s not that Duke has taken a step back. More to the point, other teams are stepping up. Vanderbilt coach Martha Freitag describe the Commodores triumph as “good as any win we’ve had at Vanderbilt.” In Georgia, with transfer Garrett Phillips joining All-Americans Taylor Leon and Whitney Wade and rising sophomore Mallory Hetzel, coach Todd McCorkle has the deepest squad since the Bulldogs won the 2001 NCAA title.

Talking to McCorkle at the start of the season, he made a telling observation about the outlook for the coming year. “I am convinced that for the past few years we all looked at Duke as the favorite; if they play good we can’t do anything about it,” he noted. “But with my team this year I think if we play well, we have the potential to have five girls be All-Americans. If we take care of business and do the things we aspire to, it would be tough to not say that things couldn’t go our way.”

Potentially seeing that Duke is vulnerable will likely have this same affect on other top programs, bringing Arizona State, Pepperdine, USC and others into the discussion over just who is the best team in the country.

Still, anyone who thinks the Blue Devils won’t be in the mix—if not the favorite—come the post-season has to do a little more homework. Sophomore standouts Amanda Blumenherst and Jennie Lee have already posted three top-10s each in three starts, and senior Anna Grzebien is as clutch as any player in the country. Said Brooks: “The fact that we are not winning every single tournament is not a problem.”

I couldn’t agree more.